


Imperio

by the_moon_and_stars_my_love



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: First War with Voldemort, Implied/Referenced Torture, Inspired By Tumblr, Inspired by Roleplay/Roleplay Adaptation, Marauders' Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 11:09:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17282933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_moon_and_stars_my_love/pseuds/the_moon_and_stars_my_love
Summary: As the trial commenced, the trial wizard took his place behind the raised table. When he spoke, his voice carried through the trial chamber. “Bellatrix Lestrange, you are charged with the torture of Frank and Alice Longbottom.”He had just opened his mouth to speak again when a soft voice cut in. “But I didn’t torture them.”





	Imperio

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a series of asks answered by @sirussly on Tumblr

As the trial commenced, the trial wizard took his place behind the raised table. When he spoke, his voice carried through the trial chamber. “Bellatrix Lestrange, you are charged with the torture of Frank and Alice Longbottom.”

He had just opened his mouth to speak again when a soft voice cut in. “But I didn’t torture them.” The statement seemed to echo in the chamber despite how quietly it had been said. All eyes went to the witch who had spoken. She stood in a cage in the center of the room, her black hair had escaped from whatever topknot it had been in and was now fanned around her, acting as a dark shadow around her face as she stepped closer to the bars. Her fingers curled around the metal, but she didn’t dare reach out. The occasional shimmer of protective magic around her cage prevented her from doing anything. Well, most anything. 

“I beg your pardon?” the wizard sputtered, blinking in confusion. He hadn’t been expecting her to speak at all during this trial. It unnerved him. 

Bellatrix’s lips curled up ever so slightly at the left corner, nearly a sneer, but her voice remained as soft and innocent as ever. “I didn’t torture either of them.”

A soft murmur of confusion broke out amongst the witches and wizards in the chamber. The Aurors had been sure it was her who tortured Alice and Frank Longbottom to insanity by use of the Cruciatus. They had captured her in the middle of the act. Frank and Alice barely managed to survive the encounter. The wizard called for silence and slowly the conversation tapered out. “Mrs. Lestrange-” 

“Bellatrix.” 

He paused, swallowing nervously as he made eye contact with her. Those eyes. It was like staring into black holes. They seemed to devour any strength the wizard might have had. “Bellatrix. Are you saying you have evidence otherwise?” 

“No. I’m saying you’ve gotten it all wrong. Here, let me tell you what happened…” 

\-----

“You know,” Bellatrix began, lazily twisting a piece of her hair around with her wand from where she leaned with her back against the bedroom wall. “I always hated being told I had to act a certain way growing up. Polite and elegant. Dignified and reserved and ever so slightly coy. The perfect daughter.” She punctuated the statement with a little curtsy, pretending to gag once she pushed off the wall, dropping her arm and swishing her wand around absentmindedly. She took a long look around the room, feeling a content sort of calm settle in her chest as noted the unmade bed, the frames that had been knocked over on the dresser, the jackets that had fallen off the chair by the desk in the corner. 

“Can you imagine? Me? Like that?” she continued after a moment with an overdramatic shudder, taking slow steps over to where Frank Longbottom sat, gagged and bound to a chair by his hands and legs. “No thank you. Never had the patience for it.” 

She noted with delight that Alice Longbottom’s eyes grew more panicked as she followed Bellatrix’s movement. The blond woman was across the room, sat bound and gagged in a similar manner as Frank. She tugged at her bonds, an invisible barrier keeping her from moving the chair and therefore continuing to restrain her. 

“I will say, though, one very good thing came out of that. Do you know what that is?” Bellatrix hardly paused as she went on, dropping her wandless hand onto Frank’s shoulder and glancing back at Alice. “I was taught the phrase ‘ladies first’ and that a gentleman will always act with this in mind. Isn’t that fun!” 

“Now, from what I’ve heard, Frank here is the perfect gentleman. Why, with a face like that, I can certainly imagine he must treat you as a well as a pure-blood deserves,” Bellatrix carried on in a cooing voice. Her fingers danced along his shoulder, nails dragging along his neck, before she gripped Frank by the jaw, squeezing as she shook his face ever so slightly. “You’re rather marvelous, aren’t you, Frankie? Shame your talents were squandered.” With a deep sigh, she placed a kiss to his temple and then pushed his face away. 

Her eyes snapped over to Alice when she heard her distressed outrage, muffled by the cloth in her mouth. “Oh, don’t worry, Alice. I wouldn’t dare take him away from you. No, you two are much too good together. And you love each other so very much, don’t you?” Bellatrix hummed, shooting Alice a playful wink. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Frank shaking his head as if desperately trying to get Alice to stop drawing attention to herself. As though, if he could keep Bellatrix’s attention, Alice might have a chance to get away. It was a sweet thought, though horribly incorrect. 

Bellatrix chuckled softly, as she stepped towards the bed and plopped herself down, legs crossed and arms holding her up. Head tilted, she glanced between Frank and Alice. They seemed to be trying to communicate silently, their eyes practically screaming as they tried to formulate a plan to escape. In truth, Bellatrix found it amusing. When she had been told she was supposed to take care of the Longbottoms by any means necessary and to be prepared because they were a powerful witch and wizard, Bellatrix had been expecting more. Maybe more protection spells. That they wouldn’t let their guard down no matter what. Though, Bellatrix thought, she had cheated a bit, casting the Imperius curse on a child and using him to gain access to the Longbottoms’ home. Still, it was their own fault. So trusting.  
She admired how courageously they had fought her, throwing spell after spell without pause. They clearly worked well together and, though she loathed to admit it, they very nearly overpowered her. But they had slipped up when Bellatrix had locked Frank in a Full Body-Bind curse and Alice had hesitated between cursing Bellatrix and saving Frank which had given Bellatrix the chance to curse her as well. Their desperate attempts to save each other had been their downfall. 

“Love is such a funny thing, isn’t it?” Bellatrix said after a long minute of the Longbottoms’ silent communication. Both of them glanced over at Bellatrix, their chests giving them away as their breathing seemed to stutter in fright at her voice. 

Bellatrix had always had a soft voice. One that was shockingly different to what people expected from her. It had the strangest musical lilt to it, so it pulled people in, forced them to listen to her. And her eyes. There was a misleading softness to them when she spoke, making people unsure if she was mocking them or was honestly being gentle. She spoke in a way that was truthfully more terrifying than if she were to simply be yelling at you. It made the moments when she did snap all the more impactful. A rumbling lightning storm. You almost didn’t know what to expect. 

This is what made the Longbottom’s hold their breath as they watched Bellatrix stand, moving over to the nightstand where she had placed their wands earlier. Picking them up, she made her way back to stand in front of the bed once more. With a lazy flick of her wand, Bellatrix brough the two chairs in front of her, keeping them a meter apart from each other. Bending down, she placed their wands just in front of them and stood up, looking between them curiously.

“You know, I never did like the Cruciatus curse,” she said, head tilting as she examined their faces. She didn’t speak again until she saw their faces twitch, both their eyes flickering back and forth between Bellatrix’s face and her wand which seemed to be emitting a soft glow at the tip. Once she saw the traces of uncertainty and fear in their eyes, she smiled. A small smile with a sort of twisted amusement. 

“It’s quite difficult to turn someone mad like that,” she explained quietly, her fingers gently tapping against her wand. She waited another few beats, listening to their heavy breathing and the slight creaks of the chairs as they tried again, pathetically, she noted with disappointment, to get out of their binds one more time. 

Bellatrix raised her wand and looked at them closely before saying, with a subtle excitement nearly creeping into her voice, “Imperio.” 

As the curse was cast, she watched their eyes go wide and their bodies tense before, a moment later, their eyes glazed over and their shoulders dropped. Bellatrix lowered her wand slowly, eyebrows lifting ever so slightly as she let out a breath of laughter, her eyes going back and forth between Frank and Alice. This was one of her favorite parts. Amazement colored her face and her lips quirked up once more, pleased, as she realized the curse was holding. Two in one go. Powerful witch and wizard indeed. 

She let herself delight for a few moments before she leaned forward, waving her once more to remove the cloth from their mouths and freeing them from their binds. Bellatrix could feel the rush of control run through her as she spoke her first command. “Now, why don’t you two...have a little fun?”  
\-----

And with a lazy sort of nonchalance that sent a shiver down the spine of each person in the trial chamber, Bellatrix said, “So, like I’ve just told you. _I_ didn’t torture the Longbottoms.”

Bellatrix gazed around at the witches and wizards in the chamber, their faces all mirroring the horror they felt as they listened to Bellatrix telling them what she had done. What she had made Frank and Alice Longbottom do. And when no one in the room spoke, Bellatrix went on, leaning her forehead against the cool bars of the cage and speaking just above a whisper as if confiding in them. “I think we bonded in the end, the Longbottoms and I. But when they saw what they had done to each other…” Bellatrix paused, taking a breath as she remembered their faces, “they were so sad. So in the end, it wasn’t the curse that turned them insane. It’s sort of lovely.” In the silence, Bellatrix’s soft laughter seemed as loud as the rumble of a storm.


End file.
